This application claims the benefit of Korean Application No. 10-2002-0073135 filed on Nov. 22, 2002, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laundry drier, and more particularly, to an assembly of a front support piece to a front cabinet panel of a laundry drier.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A laundry drier is an apparatus for drying wet objects, e.g., clothes, after washing. FIG. 1 illustrates the exterior of an exemplary laundry drier according to a related art.
Referring to FIG. 1, a drier body B essentially consists of a six-sided body of a base 1 forming a bottom, a front cabinet panel 2 forming a front side, a pair of side cabinet panels 3 forming opposing lateral sides, a back cover 4 forming a rear side, and a top cover 5 covering an upper part of the drier body. A control panel 6 is installed on the rearward end of the top cover. The laundry drier includes a laundry entrance in the front cabinet panel 2, and a door 10 is installed in the laundry entrance of the front cabinet panel 2.
There are, however, problems in the structure and construction of the above laundry drier. For example, assembly of the front cabinet panel 2 and the front support piece 7 is difficult, as demonstrated with respect to FIGS. 2 and 3, illustrating the internal constitution of an area A of FIG. 1. Typically, the assembly of the front cabinet panel 2 and front support piece 7 is performed after assembling the base 1, front cabinet panel 2, and side cabinet panels 3 to construct four sides of the drier body B.
Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the front support piece 7 is provided with a support flange 7a extending from an upper portion of its rear side and having a hook 700a, and the front cabinet panel 2 is provided with a support flange 2a extending from an upper portion of its front side and having a hook 200a. In a pre-assembly step, the front support piece 7 is coupled to the front cabinet panel 2 by bringing the support flange 7a into contact with the support flange 2a, so that the hook 700a of the front support piece is caught by the hook 200a of the front cabinet panel. Thereafter, screw coupling holes formed in both the front cabinet panel 2 and front support piece 7 are aligned, and screw coupling is carried out using a plurality of screws.
In such an assembly process, however, even though the hook of the front support piece 7 is caught by the hook of the front cabinet 2, the front support piece is merely hung on the front cabinet panel. Hence, the support is insubstantial and allows a lateral movement of the support piece 7. Moreover, alignment of the screw coupling holes requires human eyes, which makes for an unstable and cumbersome procedure.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a laundry drier that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention, which has been devised to solve the foregoing problem, lies in providing a laundry drier by which assembly between the front cabinet panel and the front support piece is stably achieved to improve work efficiency and productivity in a laundry drier fabrication process.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from a practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the subject matter particularly pointed out in the specification and claims hereof as well as in the appended drawings.
To achieve these objects and other advantages in accordance with the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, there is provided a laundry drier having an internally mounted drum and including a base forming a bottom of a body, a front cabinet panel forming a front side of the body, a pair of side cabinet panels forming opposing lateral sides of the body, a back cover forming a rear side of the body, a top cover covering an upper part of the body, a control panel installed on a rearward end of the top cover, and a front support piece installed behind the front cabinet panel to support a front side of the drier drum. The laundry drier further comprises: a first support flange extending from an upper portion of the front cabinet panel and having at least one slot formed in a central portion of the first support flange; and a second support flange extending from an upper portion of the front support piece and having at least one hooking portion formed by partially cutting through a predetermined area of the second support flange, to bend the cut area into a hook that protrudes downward, wherein the hook of the second support flange is coupled with the slot of the front cabinet panel, to thereby pre-assemble the front support piece to the front cabinet panel.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing explanation and the following detailed description of the present invention are exemplary and illustrative and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.